NJUS adopts temporary constitution
NEWARK – New Jersey United Students representatives from five higher education institutions across the state met at the Paul Robeson Campus Center of Rutgers-Newark campus Saturday afternoon to continue planning initiatives for the upcoming semester.
NJUS is a statewide organization started in February 2011 at a conference in New Brunswick that represents both community and four-year public colleges and universities that look to better New Jersey higher education, John Aspray, NJUS co-chair said.
“The basic premise is anyone who is a current or future scholar at a higher education institution [in New Jersey], or alumni can be a part of NJUS, but it is centered around the current student,” said Aspray, a University alumnus.
The constitution, which has been in the works since last spring, would allow one representative per 10,000 students and would consist of an 11-person executive board, Aspray said.
With representatives from only five schools present, there were concerns that the absent schools would not agree with all pieces of action in the constitution.
But Aspray said the constitution is not a new piece of legislation and that the information has been available since last spring so the absent schools are aware of it.
The constitution would be under a one-year probationary structure, which would allow for changes to occur by majority vote between November 2011 and November 2012, when the constitution is finalized, said Cabo Granato, NJUS co-chair and Newark School of Arts and Sciences senior.
“Passing this doesn’t mean it’s official in any way,” said Donggu Yoon, a School of Arts and Sciences senior. “This is a work in progress.”
It was presented previously at NJUS conferences in June and July and was sent to the 13 state public universities and 18 community colleges in the state that are part of the organization, Aspray said.
“I think that a good amount of outreach has been done,” he said.
Each institution had one vote during the meeting to determine whether or not to pass the constitution with a few clarifications. In the initial constitution, the term community college was not clarified but this will be corrected in a new draft of the constitution, Aspray said.
The new constitution will also state that if there is no structure in place to elect an NJUS delegate, the delegation will choose a structure through popular vote, Aspray said.
All three University campuses, New Jersey City University and Montclair University unanimously voted to approve the constitution out of the sixteen schools currently in the organization.
With the constitution approved, elections were held for the 11 available executive positions including a financial officer, public relations officer, secretary legislative affairs officer, campus affairs officer, community/labor liaison, recruitment/retention officer, grassroots coordinator and a parliamentarian.
Of those 11 executive positions, four leaders from the New Brunswick campus were elected.
Aspray and Granato retained their positions as co-chairs, which entails organizing fieldwork and recruitment efforts of NJUS, being the official spokespeople and presiding over NJUS and executive meetings.
Matthew Cordeiro, Rutgers University Student Assembly president, was elected to the position of financial officer, who sets up and maintains a 501(c) 3 legal status of NJUS, reports to the NJUS and oversees the organization’s finances, according to the NJUS constitution.
Spencer Klein, a School of Arts and Sciences junior and RUSA legislative chair, was elected as legislative affairs chair. The legislative affairs chair acts as a liaison between NJUS and the government, organizes legislative campaigns and coordinates lobbying efforts by students drawing from all campuses.
Yoon was elected as recruitment and retention officer. As recruitment and retention officer, he is expected to maintain good relations with member schools and recruit to new public universities, according to the NJUS constitution.
Aspray said in February 2012, these positions will be voted on again.
With an upcoming meeting in January to reexamine the constitution and a general February conference, the general body discussed ideas for the upcoming semester.
Aspray said the association should look to partner with teacher’s unions and progressive education unions alike, using the success of the Rutgers One coalition in New Brunswick as an example.
Aspray said the Rutgers One coalition is an alliance between student and faculty that campaign toward accessible and affordable tuition, fair treatment and respect for all University members and transparency at the University.
Yoon said the coalition planned the “Walk into Action” on April 13 last year where students walked out of classes in the support of lower tuition prices. The coalition also organized a sit-in where students occupied President Richard L. McCormick’s office with eight demands, including a demand for no tuition increase.
The sit-in put pressure on the Board of Governors, which resulted in a tuition increase to be cut in half, Aspray said.
He said unions have more resources to put into rallies, but they often have trouble in terms of professor turnout. Student coalitions often lack the funding, but they have large turnouts.
The collaboration between unions and students would be an efficient way to gain support for a campaign, Aspray said.
In addition to collaborating with unions, NJUS is also planning events such as a legislative phone bank — where students would collectively call one legislator over a particular issue — and a statewide tent city in the spring semester that would expand past the one-week time frame of Tent State.
“Doing something to show how college kids are the future, and showing [legislators] higher education is worth it,” Cordeiro said. “It’s not something we traditionally do, but to do it would be a good practice.”
